Campylobacter is one of the most commonly reported bacterial causes of human food-borne illness in the United States and epidemiological evidence indicates poultry and poultry products as a significant source of human Campylobacter infection. Colonization of poultry by Campylobacter is widespread and difficult to prevent even with proper biosecurity measures. Campylobacter is considered a commensal organism in avian species and it is predominantly found in the lower gastrointestinal tract of birds, concentrated in the mucus layer of the cecal crypts, cloaca and large intestine. The evisceration techniques at the processing plant are usually the most common source of carcass contamination with Campylobacter. 
Reducing Campylobacter in the intestinal tract would reduce contamination of poultry products. A variety of approaches for reducing the colonization of Campylobacter in poultry have been explored, but with varying degrees of success. These include use of enzymes such as xylanase, bacteriophage, bacteriocins, frutooligosaccharides and mucin utilizing coliforms, organic acids and antibiotics.
Another approach to decrease food-borne pathogens and minimize the use of antibiotics is by the use of competitive exclusion (CE) microflora. Also known as probiotics, CE was first introduced by Nurmi and Rantala (Nature (1973) 241:210-211). Probiotics are composed of single or mixtures of selected non-pathogenic organisms that upon ingestion have the ability to colonize the gastrointestinal tract and improve the hosts' health. Probiotics are usually given orally at day-of-hatch/birth allowing these bacteria to first colonize the intestinal tract before the bird/animal is exposed to pathogenic microorganisms present in the environment. The probiotic cultures used for poultry are generally obtained from intestinal tracts of healthy young birds. Undefined probiotic cultures cannot assure the absence of pathogenic organisms, guarantee the same strains are present for every treatment; and are not approved by regulatory agencies for use in the U.S. Nonetheless, the “Nurmi concept” has been demonstrated to be an effective means in reducing Salmonella colonization in broilers. Although the results to date are promising against Salmonella, Campylobacter has presented a more difficult target.